Brassiere and like foundation garment



Feb. 19, 1957 J, VERREAULT 2,781,518

BRASSIERE AND LIKE FOUNDATION GARMENT Filed April 13 1953 hss/2H I/ERREAl/LT Mmm E T WHS United States Patent BRAssmRE AND LIKE roUNDATroN @aantast Joseph Verreault, Quebec, Quebec, Canada, assigner to Dominion Corset Co. Ltd., Quebec, Quebec, Canada Application April 13, 1953, Serial No. 348,156

2 Cinims. (Cl. 2-42) This invention relates to improvements in brassieres and like foundation garments, and more particularly to improvements in the breast pockets thereof.

The principal object of this invention is to provide a cupshaped pocket, having helical parallel rows of stitching through the layers of the pocket forming material, with a novel arrangement of each row of stitching in zigzag formation to afford circumferential flexibility of the breast pocket material so as to provide a. smooth contour surface to the cup-shaped breast pocket.

Another object is to provide novel helical, parallel rows of stitching which will eliminate puckering or quilting of the cup-shaped pocket material in the circumferential direction and also eliminate shrinkage of the breast pocket contour.

Heretofore it has been customary to provide straight line stitching in helical parallel rows. This straight line stitching has a puckering or quilting effect along the rows of straight line stitching because there is no stretchability of the material between successive stitching points. This not only creates an unpleasing appearance to the outer surface of the breast pocket but also tends to diminish the contour of the pocket, more particularly after washing of the garment.

The present invention proposes to overcome these defects and the objects, advantages and characteristic features of this invention will become apparent more readily from the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which*- Fig. l is a front view of a brassiere embodying my invention.

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary view in plan of a breast pocket shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a fragment of the breast pocket detailing the manner in which the zig-zag line of stitching is applied.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary View of a conventional breast pocket for comparison with the showing in Fig. 2.

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a fragment of the breast pocket shown in Fig. 4 for comparison with the showing in Fig. 3.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, 5 indicates a brassiere front panel, 6 side panels and 7 cupshaped breast pockets secured to the front panel by lines of stitching 8. Each cup 7 is preformed of a double thickness of materials 9 and 10 (see (Fig. 3) which are stitched together by parallel, helical rows of zig-zag stitching generally indicated at 12.

As will be seen in Fig. 3, the zig-zag stitching opera tion is effected by means of upper and lower threads and 16 which parallel each other on the outer surfaces of adjacent materials 9 and 10 respectively from point to 2 point indicated A, B, C, D, E, etc. Each thread pierces the materials from opposite sides at said points and is looped and interlocked with the compansion thread, as indicated at 17 intermediate said materials.

The arrangement of the zig-zag lines of stitching ac cording to my invention in parallel helical rows about a cup-shaped breast pocket permits stretchability of the layers of material between the points A, C, E on the one side and B, D on the other side of each row to provide a smooth surface particularly on the convex outer surface of the breast pocket. The advantage of this will become apparent by comparison of Figs. 2 and 3, above described, with Figs. 4 and 5, in which the cup-shaped breast pocket 7a is stitched by parallel, helical rows of straight line stitching 12a. it will be seen that upper and lower threads 15a and 16a go from points X, Y, Z in a straight line where they are interlocked at 17a intermediate the materials 9a and 10a. Thus there is no circumferential stretchability of the materials between points X, Y, Z of the row of stitching but rather a tendency for the material between said points to pucker when the threads are interlocked. With this straight line stitching being repeated in each parallel row 12a, a quilting effect is produced, as indicated by lines 20, on the convex surface of the breast pocket. This pucker-ing or quilting effect becomes more pronounced after the garment has been Washed and tends to reduce the size of the cup as there is no circumferential stretchability between the points of stitching X, Y, Z. With the zig-zag stitching 12 according to the present invention there is no direct circumferential interlocking of the upperand lower threads 15 and 16 so that circumferential stretch is permitted between points A, C, E on the one side and B, D ete., on the other side of each helical row 12. This will permit the cup to resume its original size and contour after washing.

What I claim is:

l. A foundation garment including breast pockets having outer facing and inner lining plies, a pair of helical lines of stitching spiralling from the center to the periphery of each breast pocket, each helical line of stitching comprising zig-zag stitches of V formations, each stitch eX- tending angularly with respect to a circumferential line concentric with the apex of the pocket, one of said helical lines overlying the outer facing ply of the pocket and interlocked with the other helical line overlying the inner lining ply.

2. A foundation garment according to claim l in which said pairs of helical lines of stitching are interlocked at the apices of the V formations of the stitches.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,152,910 Childs Apr. 4, 1939 2,320,271 Everitt May 25, 1943 2,551,261 Gensheimer May 1, 1951 2,555,177 Wilson et al May 29, 1951 2,653,557 Casas-Robert et al Sept.. 27, 1953 OTHER REFERENCES Federal Standard Stock Catalogue, section IV, part 5, Federal Specification for Stitches; Scams; and Stitching, March 4, 1930; page 7, stitch type 304; copy in class ll2-262AX in Division 24. 

